The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-19
BORED BY BRAINS.
"A HOLE DRILLED THROUGH A
BOARD BY MENTAL EFFORT.

10 MIAMI A~~tA~eN--N''~'
From the Ne,c York Herald
sT can make you think hole through
belf-inch board,n was the rather startling
remark made to a reporter
The speaker was Edward Weston, of
Newark, one of the leading experts in cleo
tricity of the world.
WELL" replied the reporter, ~ have
heard of a man who could talk the ears off
a bronze statue, but your idea goes way be-
vond that. What is the trick!"
mo trick at ALL" said Mr.. Weston. 81
um in sober earnest. l will convince you
that the mere mental effort needed to solve,
for instance mathematical problem. can
he used simultaneously to drive a motor
that will bore hole through board"
SIS this another Kelly affairg' asked the
doubling reporter.
81 see I shall have to convince you by &C
tually performing the experiment" said Mr..
Weston, $50 come out and spend the after
noon at my laboratory"
ALADDIN's PALACE.
The invitation was accepted, and the re-
rorter spent not only the afternoon, but
most of the night, with Mr.. Weston, who
has long been electrician for the United
States Electric Lighting Company, but who
was recently released from connection with
that company by the expiration of his con-
tract
MrWeston has fitted up in the rear of his
place at Newark laboratory for the pur-
nose of scientific experiment and research.
1t is a veritable Aladdin's palace, having
been created by the 'slaveS of the (electric)
lamp and having as many magical appur-
fha oanii NOIIl6 boast Of
Entering the physical department, Mr.
Weston produced two thermopiles. A Their
mopile is device for generating electricity
direct from heat. 1t consists of bars of dis
similar metals placed close together, alter
nately, SO that a section cut through the
thermopile would resemble a chess board,
one metal representing the black and the
other the white squares. These bars are in
sulated from each other except at alternate
ends, where electric connection is made
The application of heat at once excites an
electric current in the thermopile, as was
shown to the reporter by several expert
ments.
Now" said Mr. Weston, II will connect
two of these thermopiles by this wire They
are connected in opposition, so that as long
as the same amount of heat is applied to
each they will neutralize each other, and
there will be no electric current to run this
if one is heated more than the other the
greater current will overpower the lesser, to
use commonly understood way of express
ing the result, and current will pass to
the motor
81 place one thermopile in this dish, sur
rounded by water, which l keep exactly at
the normal temperature of the blood-98.5'.
OF course that would excite current, but
neutralize that current by placing the
Cfhor. fharY11OT1ila in contact with
pie You see, the two thermopiles now
counteract each other, since the same de-
gree of heat is applied to each. Now, take
a problem in mechanics and solve it. Are
you readys
TACKLING A PROBLEM.
With thermopile pressed against the
starboard lobe of his alleged brain, and
enough wires and other electric appliances
close at hand to send him to Lucifer if he
refused, the reporter intimated his willing
ness TO attack a problem, If it were only
little one.
GAN right Now, suppose you drop a
stone down a coal shaft and hear it strike
bottom in five seconds, how deep is the
shaft! Remember, s=vt, and v-19gt, and
you can allow1, l42 feet per second for the
velocity of sound"
1t is hardly necessary to say that the re-
porter struggled with that problem with an
energy born of despair. He quickly forgot
all about the electric experiment, and was
bent upon reconciling the conflicting de-
mands of the time of the stones downward
fight and the time Of the upward fight of
the sound made by its striking the two in
tervals equaling five seconds.
Suddenly he was aware of a buzZing in
the motor. 1t began to spin faster ana
faster until he lost interest in the problem,
when it began to slacken speed.
"Ahl" said Mr.. Weston, ''stick to your
mechanics or you deprive the motor of
power. You must keep up your mental
exertion if you want to bore that hole"
Thus adjured, the reporter struggled with
the mechanical and algebraic difficulties of
the case, until, having got utterly muddled
with and g and {, he couldn't have told
whether the shaft was so or 500 feet deep.
He made valiant struggle, nevertheless.
PROMISE KEPT.
AS his supposed brain wrestled with the
problem the temperature of his head in
creased and the thermopile in contact was,
of course, heated above its twin, which re-
manned at the normal blood heat. AS this
difference in temperature generated an
electric current, which current ran the
motor, it was evident that the latter was
being driven practically by the reporters
efforts to solve the problem. And as the
luOJOI. WlUu d IOdu6u WHbeI,
fine drill on its axis the piercing of piece
wood by the drill was easily accomplished,
long before there was the least prospect of
the depth of the coal shaft being discovered.
Thus Mr.. Weston had literally kept his
promise of making the reporter ''think
hole through half inch board
Further experiments only added to the
reporters uncanny suspicious as to the COM
pany he was in. Mr.. Weston has not the
appearance of a dealer in the black art, but
certainly he would have been burned at the
stake had he lived in Salem two hundred
years ago and done what he now does.
AN UNPARALLELED LABORATORY.
His laboratory is not exclusively devoted
TO electricity. IL consists of four distinct
departments mechanical, physical, chemi-
cal and experimental. Scientific men who
have seen all the chief laboratories of the
world, say that there is no oCHer in this
country which is at all comparable to Mr.
Weston's, except the one at Cornell Uni.
versity, and even that lacks something of
the completeness with which details have
been provided for by Mr.. Weston.
Passing through the chemical department,
the reporters unscientlfic interest was at
tracted to a small vial containing a sub
stance of beautiful reddish pink Some
now he was drawn toward that particular
bottle, with an aching desire to smell of its
contents.
II wouldn't, if were you" said Mr. Yves
ton IF you want case of catarrh worse
than you ever dreamed of or imagined, you
might take a sniff or two there. Not ordi-